What is Keynesianism and what role has it historically played in the American economy?

What will be an ideal response?

British economist argued that it is the job of government to use fiscal policy (the power to tax and spend) to regulate the economy. Keynes argued that a lagging economy should be revived through an infusion of money (increased government spending and tax cuts) and an inflationary economy should be treated by removing money (cutting spending and raising taxes). Keynes maintained that balanced budgets are not necessary. Rather deficits and surpluses are simply tools used to fine-tune the economy. Between the 1930s and 1970s was a period during which the United States gradually adopted Keynesian theory. For Franklin Roosevelt it was a way of bringing the country out of the Great Depression via his New Deal programs. Responses should explain how these programs attempted to do that. Roosevelt’s successors continued this approach until the 1970s when fiscal policy seemed unable to manage that decade’s economic downturn during which inflation and unemployment both rose. In turn, this led politicians and others to turn away from Keynesian theory in favor of monetary policy which calls for economic regulation via control of the money supply and manipulation of interest rates.